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Software Feedback for the whole production of this SACD, since he also recorded and mixed the live sessions January 14 and 15 of 2009 at Hyperium’s studio. It was recorded in DSD and includes a multichannel layer in 5.1 surround sound. And what a sound it is! Timbres are natural and finely detailed, rhythms initiated on Dirk K’s guitar are beautifully rendered, supported by a deep double bass accompaniment and striking percussion. Melody lines flow freely from guitar strings to flute, as in the Antagonist, the first track. It starts with a beautifully rich and resonant guitar melody, soon accented by deep percussion, and then a very different theme is introduced on the flute. No, I didn’t feel the tension and opposition between those two lines, as Dirk K alludes to about this piece. I perceived the themes as complementary, and becoming part of a whole as the piece progressed. (Difference is not always tension — my two cents personal comment in response to Dirk’s — it can also be balance.) Actually, as I continued, I decided to skip the explanations in the liner notes as to the original inspiration for each composition, and let my impressions develop freely. I liked Philip’s choice. Track 6, titled Philip’s Wish, is Dick K’s son’s favorite composition, and he wished it could be named after him. The flamenco inspiration is wonderfully present, with a unique contribution by bass clarinet and double bass, all supported by lightning fast and precise percussion. The next one, Calico Cat, is more jazz than flamenco, and the tenor sax has a predominant role through most of it. The last track, The Traveler, starts with 72 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine a sudden percussion exchange, an exotic sounding Brazilian rhythm, and flowing melody lines follow smoothly between guitar and bass clarinet. The realism was such that I had the uncanny impression of being among the musicians. It felt as if I could just get up and weave my way through the percussion instruments. I must say I appreciated this album more as I listened to it again and again. No somber, brooding or melancholic moods here; each piece is fresh and bright, and rhythm is prevalent. A very successful blend of flamenco and jazz. Famous Blue Raincoat (4-LP) Jennifer Warnes Cisco CLP7060-45 Rejskind: What a wonderful project this is, saving this valuable recording from obscurity. Perhaps you’re familiar with it, because it was once a staple of audio shows despite a lackluster pressing. The transition to CD pretty much killed it… until now. Some thirty years ago Jennifer Warnes was a successful pop singer, with such songs as The Right Time of the Night getting plenty of radio play. Her record company was pleased with her, but she longed to do something better. What happened to her is what has happened to a number of talented performers who signed contracts with big record companies: she no longer wanted to sing throwaway songs, but her contract prevented her from singing for anyone else. Unable to be a soloist, she sang backup for other artists, including… Leonard Cohen. In 1986 Warnes and Cohen did an album together, and the result was nothing less than magic. A number of well-known Cohen songs were on the album, including First We Take Manhattan, Bird on a Wire, The Song of Bernadette, and of course the title song. The remarkable Joan of Arc turned into a duet, with Cohen singing the role of the fire to Warnes’ Joan. Warnes actually composed the music to Song of Bernadette (with Bill Elliot) and collaborated on the text as well. Cisco set out to do this famous recording justice, turning what had been a single LP into a four-disc box 45 rpm set. It does contain some extra songs that were not on the original, though that turns out to be a mixed blessing. One of the “extras” is another Cohen song — almost a monologue — The Ballad of the Runaway Horse, originally recorded with bassist Rob Wasserman on the album Duets. That version may not have been available, since it was on the MCA label, and Warnes re-recorded it with bassist Dave Stone and (alas!) plenty of other musicians. More is less, in this case, and the new recording doesn’t hold a candle to the original. Also included is a Cohen song If It Be Your Will, and a somewhat superfluous concert version of Joan of Arc. I was disappointed that the album didn’t include Way Down Deep, a Cohen/Warnes collaboration found on her album The Hunter. The sound is generally excellent, with superb pressings, but noticeable groove noise indicates errors made in the cutting suite. This is an expensive album, which will unfortunately limit the copies available, and now that Cisco’s LP business has closed, it won’t get any cheaper. The re-release, fortunately, also exists on CD. It is vastly superior to the older CD and I recommend it warmly. Earl Wrightson Earl Wrightson/Lois Hunt Sony Music COL-CD-7581 Rejskind: I ran across this disc not long ago, and I snapped it up, because I had been searching for it for years. The album I was especially looking for is titled Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits. Shakespeare’s plays often include songs, but only words, not music. They cry out for the right music and a voice to render them. Enter Dick Hyman.
Yes, that Dick Hyman, the jazz pianist and swing bandleader you may know for his several albums for Reference Recordings. In the early 60’s he actually composed music for a number of Shakespeare’s songs and sonnets (he repeated the exploit a few years later, though with less good results). The songs were sung by the wonderful operetta baritone Earl Wrightson, whose heroic golden tones bring this superb music to life. The mood shifts from song to song, no doubt as the Bard intended. Hyman wrote a robust, rollicking tune for It Was a Lover and his Lass, drawn from As You Like It. From Measure for Measure, the song Take, O Take Those Lips Away is a wistful ballad. Who is Sylvia from Two Gentlemen of Verona is set to a soaring melody entirely worthy of this oftquoted song. As for Wrightson, his name was once a household word. He was a popular radio star back when radio had live talent before its microphones, and was often seen on early television, singing songs from operettas and musical comedies. He starred in road show versions of Kiss Me Kate, Man of La Mancha, Fiddler on the Roof, and many others, His unique voice was perfectly suited to Dick Hyman’s evocative music, and of course Shakespeare’s immortal poetry. The CD however includes a second complete album, titled A Night With Rudolf Friml. Friml was a Viennese composer who made his career in the United States composing popular operettas. Though some of the songs sound risible today (Rose Marie and Indian Love Call, sung with his long-time companion Lois Hunt, are but two examples), some of the songs still pack a punch. Listen to the opening number, The Song of the Vagabonds, a showstopper that would surely have drawn an ovation. Also memorable is the familiar Donkey Serenade. Though it has often been done, surely no one has ever sung it like Earl Wrightson. I actually have this recording on a pretty good stereo LP, and I was pleased to find that the transfer to digital preserves the richness and power of the original, without annoying artifacts. Getting these two superb albums on one CD is an unexpected find. Z Yves Montand Christal Films 50660 Rejskind: This year is billed as the 40th anniversary of this landmark film, the greatest political thriller of all time, but in fact I first saw it in 1968, when it existed only in its original French version. I attended a weeknight late show, with less than half the theatre full. When it was over, there was an ovation so intense and extended you would have thought director Costa-Gavras had been present. On DVD, Z has lost none of its power. The plot line will seem disquietingly familiar. In an unnamed country (actually Greece, as Costa-Gavras reveals in sly hints), an energetic young left-wing parliamentarian (Yves Montand) is campaigning for an election he appears poised to win. He is anti-military and especially anti-NATO, underlining that each time a cannon is fired an amount equivalent to a teacher’s annual salary goes up in smoke. Not surprisingly, he makes powerful enemies. Following a political rally, he dies in what is initially billed as a banal traffic accident, and then as a killing by two anti-social losers with radical political connections…acting independently, of course! To put this into perspective, I saw Z a mere three months after the assassination of Robert Kennedy by an anti-social loser acting “independently.” Like many, I did not then subscribe to the hypothesis of a high-level conspiracy in the murder of either Bobby or JFK. Such a plot would be too complex, too many people would have to be in on it, the secret couldn’t possibly be kept. The genius of Z is that it demonstrates how such a conspiracy would work. I emerged from the cinema shaken, convinced that the US had undergone not one but two coup d’états in a single decade. However there is more to Z than its story. Costa-Gavras, working on a small budget (some of it donated by one of his actors), did nothing less than reinvent cinema. The conspiracy is complex, and telling its story conventionally would have resulted in a very long film whose details would have been difficult to grasp, as they are in such later political films as JFK and All the President’s Men. Costa- Gavras telescoped his story into less than two hours by using editing techniques they warn against in film schools, such as jump cuts. Backstory is provided in flashbacks that last mere seconds, with little or no dialog. Amazingly it works, and you always know what is going on. The story is relentless in its intensity, but with a mixture of humor and tension that points to one of the director’s major influences, Alfred Hitchcock. This telescoping of the story results in great economy. After I had seen the film a second time (four days later), I realized that, in this dense and “talky,” scenario, there is not a word wasted. What seem like casual comments have deeper meaning, sometimes ironic, sometimes chilling. Even in the scene before the main titles, which depicts a boring lecture on agriculture, you shouldn’t miss a word. You should also ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 73 Software Feedback
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